Catalina Park - The Gully

If you’re looking for a great place for a safe family walk that’s also dog on-leash friendly Catalina Park, ticks all the boxes. Catalina Park, Katoomba is also known as “The Gully”.

KEY POINTS

• Distance: 2.1km

• Kid-safe: Yes

• Dogs on-leash: Yes

• Steps: None to speak of

• Accessible: Yes, wheelchair and pram

• Heights: None

There are 3 different parts to this walk.

THE LAKE: The lake is small with a formed track all around it. There are seats and multiple picnic tables. There is NO SWIMMING.

THE GULLY INTERACTIVE WALK: Once you walk past the Lake, you’ll see the entry point to “The Gully Interpretive Walk”. Take your time doing this short round walk. It’s a wonderful walk.

THE TRACK: You can walk the full length of the old racetrack. Nature is slowly reclaiming it and it’s a paved surface all the way around. It’s also dog on-leash friendly.

START HERE: https://w3w.co/availability.eyewitness.masters

OVERVIEW: The Gully is an important place in Country for Gundungurra, Darug and other Aboriginal People as well as non-Aboriginal people. The Gully forms the headwaters of the Katoomba Falls Creek and is therefore part of the Warragamba Catchment area that provides Sydney’s water. It is an ecologically and culturally sensitive place. The Gully was declared an Aboriginal Place on 18 May 2002.

HISTORY: Before white settlement, the traditional owners of the Gully – the Gundungurra and Darug peoples – used the Gully as a summer camp.

In 1946, the area was developed as a tourist park. The Kedumba Creek which feeds to the Katoomba Falls was dammed, forming an ornamental lake. The shell of a Catalina PBY-5 flying boat was shipped up on a truck and installed in the middle of the lake, giving the area its informal name. People could pay to visit and play with the airplane controls, while speedboat rides were carried out around it. Tearooms, a miniature train, Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, swimming pool, as well as a small cinema.

PDF 📄